Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway blasted by environmental groups over show's grand finale

Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway has come under environmental fire for flying a plane without passengers across the Atlantic.

The show's grand finale saw a number of lucky fans that were flown to the US from London Heathrow for the last episode.

Ant, 46, and Dec, 47, Stephen Mulhern, 46, and Nicole Scherzinger, 44, joined the fans as they filmed the programme from the Universal Orlando Resort.

British Airways Holidays and Universal Orlando Resort are official holiday prize providers for the 19th series of the show.

However, reports suggest that the show's partners for the finale flew an aircraft without any passengers back to the UK, with the distance between London Heathrow Airport and Orlando being around 8,672 miles.

"This is a PR disaster. While the planet is heating up, it’s incredible anyone would allow a huge plane to be flown empty across the Atlantic," a source told The Sun.

"It’s environmentally irresponsible."

Environmental scientist Angela Terry also told the publication: “In a climate crisis, it’s shocking the show can’t offer amazing experiences to prize winners that don’t involve two empty trans-Atlantic flights.”

British Airways

An ITV spokesperson told LADbible: "Our partnership with British Airways Holidays covers the outbound and inbound flight that seats all our winners and crew.

"ITV shows aims to achieve the highest standards of sustainability both on and off screen and our efforts have been recognised by achieving BAFTA's 'Albert Certification' standard which is the TV industry standard kitemark for sustainability in the UK and is a requirement for all ITV shows."

While a British Airways Holidays spokesperson also explained that the airline purchased the equivalent amount of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to cover all four legs that the aircraft completed during these flights.

They said: "We're pleased to have partnered with ITV and we purchased sustainable aviation fuel to mitigate the emissions associated with the charter flights operated as part of this trip.

"We returned the aircraft to London and subsequently back to Orlando to continue flights for our customers over the busy Easter period and in addition, we offered cargo space on these flights."

ITV

Despite the controversy, fans were sad to witness the last episode of the series.

One person tweeted: "Gutted it's the last episode of the series!"

While a second added: "Don’t want this show to end but equally very excited to see the finale live in Florida."

And a third wrote: "I can’t believe it’s #SaturdayNightTakeaway’s last show of the series it has gone way too quick."